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Why Participate in Reading Challenges?

A Reader's Respite didn't participate in any reading challenges for 2011. We shoved them aside, foolishly believing that they hampered our reading and limited our book horizons. Boy, were we ever wrong. Truth to be told, we missed our reading challenges. Challenges kept us on track and gave us a sense of accomplishment with our reading progress. They also foster a sense of community and although many folks might see reading as a solitary experience, those of us in the book blogging world know differently.

Sharing our love of books via reviews, musings, recommendations and warnings is an essential part of the reading experience. How many bookish friends have you made in the online world? A Reader's Respite has made countless book-minded friends that we might never have met were it not for the bibliophile online community. And reading challenges are a big part of that community.

So this year, 2012, we are returning to our love of reading challenges. Oh, you can be assured that there will be a few that we will not finish and will berate ourselves over at the end of the year. But we'll have a fun time trying and who knows? Maybe we'll meet some new bookish friends. (And perhaps we'll get through some of the 800+ unread books sitting on our shelves....ugh).

Here are the challenges we're signing up for:

Sponsored by Workaday Reads, we're being a little wimpy on this one, committing to 25 e-books in 2012. Considering there are over 100+ books on our Kindle, we have more than enough to choose from. Now if we could just remember what in the hell made us download most of them to begin with....

The death of Anne McCaffrey in 2011 seems like a darned good reason to re-read her classic books in this challenge sponsored by West Virginia Red Reads. A Reader's Respite had no idea how many books are in or related to her original Pern novels. We're committing to reading the original trilogy plus the Harper Hall trilogy. (Oh crap, we've got a book moratorium going on in this house....what if we don't already have them all? A trip to the library may be in order.....)

Hosted by Literary Escapism, we're pretty confident that of the 800+ unread books in this house, at least 25 of them were written by an author new to A Reader's Respite. So it is with a happy heart that we're signing up for the New Authors Challenge.

We're pretty sure that The Hopeful Librarian had A Reader's Respite in mind when they created the Unread Book Challenge of 2012. Or could it be that there are other pathetic, obsessive bibliophiles out there who have a nasty habit of buying more books than they can read? Could it be that we're not alone in the universe?

Ah, The Game of Thrones Challenge. Since The Lit Bitch is hosting it and we just happen to have the entire set sitting here on our shelves (still in shrink wrap, we might add), this must be kismet.

No set of reading challenges would be complete without War Through the Generations. Consistently one of the very best challenges around, this year the focus is on World War I. We're going to "wade" this year and read 4-10 books with a World War I theme.

Traditionally, A Reader's Respite has loved participating in the Chunkster Challenge since so many of our books meet the 450+ page criteria. This year, though, we've decided to forgo the Chunkster because the rules state that Kindle books don't count (what the hell, people? Isn't that the reason we got a Kindle to begin with? So we wouldn't have to lug around a 10lb book anymore?). So instead we're heading over to The Book Garden and signing up for the Tea & Books Reading Challenge where only books over 700 pages count! Since Kindle books are acceptable (thankyouverymuch) we're committing to the Earl Grey Aficionado Level which means we have to find six of these mammoth books here on our shelves to read.

If you're a glutton for punishment and can't resist a good reading challenge, head on over to A Novel Challenge and find one that has your name on it.

Books I've Reviewed

Traditionally, I am not a fan of any books that try to replicate a classic author's work. I've tried them and they have all failed for me (most recently was the disaster of The Monogram Murders where a modern author tried to write Agatha...

Oh goodness. Okay, I should admit that I'm not a huge, huge, love-everything-he's-ever-written Gaiman fan. I've *liked* a lot of his work (Ocean at the End of the Lane, Coraline, etc) but have yet to really fall head over heels for him. ...

Hmph. Started off like gangbusters; well, sort of. I have a thing for boarding school/prep school books (no idea why, but there's no denying it), so I fell comfortably into the story. While I found the Lolita trope slightly eyeroll induc...